Plot
In Singapore, the Hoan International Bank is suddenly attacked by the Reavers, a group of cybernetic criminals. After looting the vault and slaughtering most of the people in the bank, they take Jessan Hoan captive, impressed by her guts and financial accumen, and return to the Australian town that serves as their headquarters via the teleportation abilities of a mute mutant named Gateway. As the rest of the Reavers celebrate their latest acquisitions, Pretty Boy begins brainwashing Hoan in order to remove her scruples and make her a Reaver. Just then, the X-Men attack the town, with Longshot and Dazzler interrupting Hoan's reprogramming as the rest of the X-Men take apart the Reavers. During the melee, Pretty Boy, Skullbuster and Bonebreaker manage to escape, telling Gateway they'll release him from his servitude if he teleports them to safety.

In the aftermath of the attack, the X-Men wonder what to do with the defeated Reavers. Havok jokingly suggests killing them, but Wolverine suggests it seriously. Just then Roma appears, offering the X-Men an alternative: the Siege Perilous, a mystical gateway to a realm where the Reavers can be judged and punished accordingly. Storm offers the Reavers a choice: the Siege, or Wolverine, and the Reavers enter the portal. Roma then teleports Hoan back to Singapore, then reveals that the X-Men are invisible to detection by all but the naked eye and the devices of the Reavers' base, their new home. She also gives them the Siege Perilous to use as they see fit, and tells them they now hold the future of their world in their hands.

Firsts and Other Notables
This issue marks the beginning of what is commonly called the book's Outback or Australian Era, as the X-Men adopt an abandoned town in the Outback as their new headquarters.

They claim said town from the Reavers, a group of cybernetically enhanced criminals making their first appearance in this issue. Most of the group is defeated by the X-Men and sent through the Siege Perilous. Three notable members of the group do escape: Skullbuster, Pretty Boy and Bonebreaker. These three will eventually join up with the similarly-cybernetic Donald Pierce, Lady Deathstrike and Cole, Macon & Reese (the surviving Hellfire Club mercenaries from issue #133) to reform the Reavers and bedevil the X-Men later in the Outback Era.

This is also the first appearance of Gateway, a seemingly-mute aboriginal mutant with the ability to open teleportation portals via his bull roarer. Gateway is introduced here as an unwilling servant of the Reavers (they threaten to destroy a holy site if he doesn't do as he's told) and he remains a willing ally of the X-Men after they defeat the Reavers and move in. It's unclear if he's considered a member of the team or just an ally (different sources consider him in different ways), and his past/motivations remain one of the more obvious unresolved plots of Claremont's tenure, as he never really gets around to fleshing out the character (though commenter Nathan Adler has some thoughts on where Claremont might have been going with the character, which you can read here). Gateway will later briefly become a member of the Generation X supporting cast, and eventually revealed to be the great-grandfather of future X-Man Bishop.

Inspired by the Arthurian legend of the seat reserved for the finder of the holy grail, the Siege Perilous, a large jewel that expands into a portal to a metaphysical realm in which all who enter are judged and then reborn, makes its first appearance in this issue (at least in American comics, in this form; it previously appeared in Claremont's Captain Britain stories, though was a little bit different there). It is given to the X-Men by Roma, as further reward for their sacrifice against the Adversary. Here, it is used as an alternative to killing the captured Reavers outright, though Roma also mentions it can be used by the X-Men themselves whenever they're ready to retire to a better life. In fact, a portion of these X-Men will eventually go through the Siege Perilous, emerging from it changed in various ways.

It is established this issue that the X-Men (presumably since their resurrection by Roma in issue #227) are now invisible to all but the naked eye and the devices of their new base - they cannot be recorded by video, captured on film, etc. Claremont will work this condition into various stories moving forward, but will never outright remove it before leaving the series, and later writers will simply ignore it. So technically, this group of X-Men should still be invisible to all measure of electronic detection, but they're not.

Jessan Hoan makes her first appearance in this issue as well. The daughter of a Singapore banker, she is captured by the Reavers in this issue and partially brainwashed. She will eventually return in Wolverine's Marvel Comics Presents serial and his solo series, taking the name Tyger Tiger and becoming a crime lord in Madripoor.

The cover price increases to $1.00 as of this issue.

We've come around quickly to the Statement of Ownership again, with the average number of copies sold per month in the preceding year listed as 430,158, with the total number of issues sold in the month nearest to
the file date being 461,011, down a bit from the ~630,000 reported last time, but still huge numbers, especially compared to today. A Work in Progress
It's noted that Pretty Boy's attempt to brainwash Jessan Hoan enrages Longshot because something similar happened to him.

I Love the 80s
Two Reavers seen entering the Siege Perilous are named Stan and Ollie, presumably a reference to Laurel and Hardy.

Claremontisms
Pretty Boy threatens to make Dazzler a Reaver "body and soul".

Bullpen Bulletins
A column by EiC Tom DeFalco explains the recent price increase, saying that Marvel decided to increase the price higher on their most popular titles at the time (which makes for an interesting list: all Spider-Man and X-Books, plus Punisher and Silver Surfer) than raise the price on everything.

It's in the Mail
The letters page runs letters discussing issue #218. The upcoming Excalibur series is discussed, teasing a sixth member that I don't believe materializes (at least not within the timeframe of this letter col), Gateway's mysterious background is teased, and both the Marvel Comics Presents Wolverine serial and his solo series are announced.

Teebore's Take
Even moreso than issue #227, this one is chiefly responsible for setting up the X-Men's new status quo. It introduces a new group of villains, the Reavers, who will essentially function as the defining villains of this era of the title, a new supporting character/team member/mystery in Gateway, who is also established as the group's new means of transportation, and a new headquarters, the Reavers' former base in an abandoned town in the Australian Outback, thus giving this era the name by which its commonly known. The story itself also lends itself to being a great primer on the current X-Men, who they are and what they can do, as the battle between the X-Men and the Reavers is more about showcasing each of the individual X-Men than the battle itself (the Reavers, at least in this iteration, don't pose much of a threat to the X-Men yet, and the long-promised harsher, battle-ready X-Men are on display as they cut through the cyborg criminals with relative ease).

Roma is also on hand to give the X-Men the Siege Perilous (which becomes important to the course of the narrative further down the line, when it essentially leads to the end of this era) and once again establish the new purpose of the team: to strike out from their new base to battle injustice, invisible to all but the naked eye, growing the legend of the X-Men. In that, this tightly-constructed done-in-one reads very much like the premiere of a new season of an X-Men TV show, introducing the new setting and Big Bad while reminding the audience and new viewers who the main characters are. A strong start, then, to the book's new era.

Next Issue
Tomorrow, New Mutants #63 features another fill-in, while Friday, Apocalypse's ship lashes out in X-Factor #28. Next week, the X-Men celebrate Christmas in Uncanny X-Men #230.

32 comments:

Ms. Hoan's corruption is always blamed on Pretty Boy's interrupted conditioning and Roma walks scot-free for returning her into Hoan International bank midst all the dead bodies from the massacre, which is bound to leave her a bit skewed while Silvestri makes a point to show that she quite likes what Pretty Boy is doing to her.

What comes to Nathan Adler's excellent piece on Gateway's origin, I just couldn't wait for your take on the issue and instead felt forced to go there to comment on the matter of "Why Australia?" and in afterthought I may have had my moped yank itself off my hands.

This was my first time reading this issue, which was a lot of fun. I thought it was kind of fun that the Reavers are built up like big bad asses in the first half of the issue only to have the X-Men come in and wipe the floor with them. Bonebreaker, Skullbuster and Pretty Boy all make pretty memorable first appearances.

I enjoyed that link to Nathan's blog. He's probably dead-on about the Shadow King being the one threatening Dreamtime. Claremont has definitely said in interviews that he was planning on having the Reavers team up with the Shadow King by issue 300 and that X-Treme X-Men Annual Nathan links to definitely plays like a "What if Claremont had gotten to finish the Muir Island Saga?" X-Treme gets a lot of flack, but I actually enjoy it quite a bit. I think the first 30 issues are Claremont's strongest work on the X-Men post his original run.

I've always found it weird that issue 227 ended with Roma thanking the X-Men and bidding them farewell, then in this issue she just sort pops in to say "Hey, by the way, I forgot to give you this thing and by the way, you're invisible to electronics now. Bye again!" I just feel like it all should've been in the same story.

I'm not sure why, but it was many, many years before I realized that Jessan Hoan and Tyger Tiger were the same person (like, I just figured it out a year or so ago). I always thought Hoan was just a one-off character in this story and Tyger was someone Wolverine knew from "way back". Probably because I read very little solo Wolverine stuff when I was younger.

"The upcoming Excalibur series is discussed, teasing a sixth member that I don't believe materializes..."

That would likely be Widget, right? He does sort of "join" just before the "Cross-Time Caper".

@Matt: I've always found it weird that issue 227 ended with Roma thanking the X-Men and bidding them farewell, then in this issue she just sort pops in to say "Hey, by the way, I forgot to give you this thing and by the way, you're invisible to electronics now. Bye again!" I just feel like it all should've been in the same story.

That contrivance was needed so that the X-Men could, now that "Plan Omega" is go, rewarm the idea from UXM to kill their enemies because what else are they to do, and have them do some soul searching and only then have Roma pop up with a "hey no killing necessary for our heroes!" solution. I think there is an idiom in the English language to denote exactly where Roma pulled Siege Perilous to give it to the X-Men for this purpose.

For the Outback era X-aminations I propose an "X-Men - Siege Nazis" segment to be added for all the enemies that the X-Men will kill rather than make them go through Siege Perilous. "No Siege for you!"

You know, I've never actually given that much thought before (probably because it's just always been Australia for me). Part of it is probably just that it's a lot different than the usual setting (Australian Outback vs. Upstate New York), and part of it is probably just that Claremont wanted something relatively isolated to preserve the "X-Men are dead" ruse (can't have random passersby recognizing them).

Maybe there's also an element of the whole "X-Men as legends" to it as well, with the Outback town a bit like something out of a Spaghetti Western, allowing the X-Men to ride off or into the sunset as needed, like mythic heroes.

@Jeff: I think the first 30 issues are Claremont's strongest work on the X-Men post his original run.

I would probably agree, but to be fair, that's clearing a pretty low bar. ;)

Seriously, though I'm excited to revisit X-Treme X-Men. I remember really liking part of it, particularly at the beginning, while some of the later stuff seemed to devolve too far into Claremont's usual tics and tricks, with the increase of Igor Kordy art not helping.

@Matt: I just feel like it all should've been in the same story.

It does feel like some of this material got shoehorned out of #227. There were only so many pages there, and I can understand the urge to end on the resurrection, but Roma's farewell there probably shouldn't have been presented as being quite so final.

And, of course, wedging the pointless #228 between them doesn't help, as it makes the whole thing seem more drawn out when instead her appearance here could have felt like a natural extension of her appearance in #227.

That would likely be Widget, right?

Probably. Again, having never read those issues, I'm going off what I've heard, but I always got the impression that Widget didn't formally join the team until later, well after whatever plans this letter col would have been teasing. But I could very easily be wrong, especially if it's a case, as you say, of Widget "joining" as opposed to joining. :)

"while Silvestri makes a point to show that she quite likes what Pretty Boy is doing to her"I think the idea is that she only "likes" it because of the brainwashing. The idea that a woman secretly wants to be brainwashed by a man into being a slutty bad girl has unfortunate implications:http://tropes.wikia.com/wiki/It's_Not_Rape_If_You_Enjoyed_It"I propose an "X-Men - Siege Nazis" segment to be added for all the enemies that the X-Men will kill rather than make them go through Siege Perilous. "No Siege for you!""The worst part is that the X-Men refused to take it along when they KNEW they'd be fighting villains like the Brood and Malice for no real reason except so they'd be faced with a moral dilemma over whether to kill someone who's not in control of their faculties.

And now Dazzler appears to have a different, bigger flash/burst insignia on her right boob.

Mei Ling, the name of the girl who's gunned down on Pg. 2, is also the name of the woman Jonah Hex married in old DC continuity. FWIW.

I don't get the in medias res way the X-Men show up in this issue. Not that it's a bad move in theory, just that it raises all kinds of questions, given the way Storm thanks Roma for bringing the team to the scene. Had the X-Men asked to go after the Reavers, even though they appear to never have encountered each other before? Did Roma sic the X-Men on the Reavers to balance some cosmic scales? Were the Reavers just literally in the wrong place at the right time when Roma brought the X-Men to this place she figured would be an appropriate new base of operations, and/or did their presence help make it perfect? It feels like the X-Men had been chasing them, perhaps as the latest and last line to scratch off a whistle-stop tour that found Roma bringing the X-Men from hot spot to hot spot, but there's no indication of how long it's been since their immediate revival at the end of #227.

Part of my confusion, I'm sure, is that I don't know what comes next, and like I've said before I am looking forward to finally reading this stretch of issues, but since I haven't read it I think my confusion at coming to this issue cold is pretty genuine.

I remember asking a friend back in high school what the X-Men were up to since around #205 and hearing, well, they'd died but they were brought back to life and now they were living in the Australian Outback in charge of this thing called the Siege Perilous and... man, I just rolled my eyes and was sorry I asked. Clearly things had gotten even weirder and less of what the X-Men were to me since I'd dropped out. Which isn't to say anyone who read it was wrong for liking it, just that it's a perfect example of how insane this stuff sounds when you boil it down for someone not in the loop. Speaking of which:

// Jessan Hoan makes her first appearance in this issue as well. The daughter of a Singapore banker, she is captured by the Reavers in this issue and partially brainwashed. She will eventually return in Wolverine's Marvel Comics Presents serial and his solo series, taking the name Tyger Tiger and becoming a crime lord in Madripoor. //

"I've always found it weird that issue 227 ended with Roma thanking the X-Men and bidding them farewell, then in this issue she just sort pops in to say "Hey, by the way, I forgot to give you this thing and by the way, you're invisible to electronics now. Bye again!" I just feel like it all should've been in the same story."

I've always wondered if maybe the X-men shouldn't have been resurrected at all in #227. It just ends with them dead. Then have them resurrected here with Roma going through the motions of explaining it all to them at once.

"bedevil the X-Men later in the Outback Era."

Yeah, but we never got that final X-men vs. Reavers confrontation. At least not with this team, which would have been interesting. But I guess since CC wanted to build them up without killing any X-men, better to have them slaughter some D-list hangers on and a few FF members on Muir Island.

"In fact, a portion of these X-Men will eventually go through the Siege Perilous, emerging from it changed in various ways."

Given how most of them get a slight perversion of what they were wishing for...be careful what you wish for.

"The daughter of a Singapore banker...and becoming a crime lord in Madripoor."

Love how she is from the real Singapore and ends up living in Marvel's fake Singapore.

@anonymous: The worst part is that the X-Men refused to take it along when they KNEW they'd be fighting villains like the Brood and Malice for no real reason except so they'd be faced with a moral dilemma over whether to kill someone who's not in control of their faculties.

Yeah, Claremont seems to quickly forget about the Siege - he introduces it this issue, then really doesn't do anything with it until #247 and then #251.

@Blam: I don't get the in medias res way the X-Men show up in this issue.

Your confusion probably is genuine, and knowing what's coming doesn't really allay any of it. The sense I get, that seems to be backed up by things that summarize plots (like the Index) is that Roma pointed the X-Men to the Reavers as a threat that needed to be eliminated, sort of a "hey, so now that you're resurrected, I've got a good contender here for the first evil you go after. Plus, once you root them out, you'll get a new headquarters out of it!"

Not that anything in this issue makes that terribly clear, granted, nor does that reading answer some of the questions your raised. Claremont seems to be sacrificing clarity for the sake of the in media res appearance.

Comics!

To be clear, I did write that Jessan Hoan bit intentionally as bluntly as possible, just to create the sensation you described in the comment above it. :)

@wwk5d: I've always wondered if maybe the X-men shouldn't have been resurrected at all in #227.

That would have been a strong ending. I wonder if editorial would have put the kibosh on it, for fear that readers would assume the book was cancelled (what with the main characters dead and all) and not seek it out the next month?

Which is basically just the Brood and the Marauders.

AND Genosha and Master Mold, plus they smash some Savage Land heads trying to help Lorna post-Malice.

"AND Genosha and Master Mold, plus they smash some Savage Land heads trying to help Lorna post-Malice.

Don't forget the Jean-bomb and M-Squad!!!"

Yeah, but what I meant was, all those examples they just stumble into more or less due to comic-book-coincidence. The only time they actively seek out and go after anyone was the Brood and the Marauders, and even the Marauders were found due to Madddie getting help on their location from N'astrah, no?

Thanks for that flashback, I'd forgotten about the "Mutant Beach Party" spoof, I remember laughing out loud when I read that!I really enjoyed the whole X-Men Down Under saga, dangling plot lines and all. Even the sappy Christmas issue when they try to return the Reaver's stolen loot to its rightful owners. Ah, those were the days!

In Excalibur #2 GATEWAY Technologies was built right near the stone-structure (Loch Daemon, Claremont's Stonehenge analogue) where Brian Braddock originally got his Captain Britain powers.

And Brian was originally chased to that spot by a terrorist called The REAVER, Joshua Stragg!

Is that Reaver one of THE Reavers?

And seeing as how Gateway Technologies is a gutted-out-ruin, one might say, WHO gutted it?

Was it the Reaver?

Was it several Reavers?

Curious that a "Reaver" chased Brian to the stonehenge structure, where he first encountered Merlin and Roma.

And later we have another Gateway, this one enslaved by the Reavers (plural), until they are defeated by the X-Men, who were basically pointed at them – like bullets out of a gun – with the trigger person being Roma.

So we've got a "Gateway" and a "Reaver" at two separate parts of Earth. And in both places, Roma is there, not only taking an interest but influencing events.

What is the significance of those two locations? And just what is Gateway Technologies?

Holy Cow, Nathan! Excalibur 2 is pretty concurrent with this issue and both are Claremont. We also won't get told who cyborgized the Reavers. Pierce leads them later on but their original operation is very un-Piercelike. Someone fitted them with tech for some purpose and set in the Outback, and then they in boredom started murderous robberies in their own account?

Both places are at least some sort mystical power centers, but they don't happen to be on exact opposite locations on Earth, are they?

I went to your Origin of Gateway post and spammed it heavily, one angle there being Belasco being very vocal about opening a "Gateway" for his Elder Gods to Earth and Illyana being his means for it, which storyline is also about to come into some sort of fruitition. Those Limbo folks visit quite freely the Outback computer systems and Gateway on his part seems able to pick Illyana's necromantic spell for Colossus.

Hey wait. Loch Daemon, as the name suggests, and is explicitly stated in Ex2, is in Scotland, whereas the place where Brian Braddock became Captain Britain is on Dartmoor, the big moor area in southern (?) England. It was Dartmoor something something, the research facility where Brian worked at time and where the Reaver attacked. Different places.

On the Gateway place though we'll find Widget who advances to make a dimensional portal. Courtesy of the place/technology available there?

I remember reading a comic book once where they used a trans-spatial research facility to portal a very Lovecraftian-looking telepathic tentacled gene-manipulated monstrosity, but Chris probably wouldn't think of lifting something from Moo...

Didn't Widget have piece of Kitty Pryde's brain in it or something, why was that lying down at the wrecked factory in Ex 1?

Other than that, Loch Daemon seem to have been the scene of Claremont's Bizarre Adventures 25, starring Megan Daemon AKA Lady Daemon AKA Child of Light. In Oz they have the clone of the Child of Light and Darkness, and only a little skip away in Limbo there's the Darkchylde.

Makes me wonder, what exactly was there supposed to happen in the Rachel Summers miniseries about her time in the Mojoworld, meant to happen at this time but didn't, now that this Child of Light and Darkness starts to hang around Captain Britain mythos.

Teemu, I hate to swoop in as the correction fairy, but I need to point out that Brian worked at the Darkmoor research station. I'm no expert on the geography of the British Isles, but I'm pretty sure Darkmoor is made up and therefore could exist wherever Claremont wanted it to.

Matt, I would hate if you didn't swoop. You're right on that one. And now checking the issue summary for CB #1 on theuncannyxmen.net they even give the location: Northumberland’s Cheviot Hills, and the nuclear research facility was built on top of a fairy mound (so the swooping is also very appropriate). Wikipedia tells me Cheviot Hills are right on the Anglo-Scottish border, so it's workable and Nathan probably got the Loch Daimon name for the Stonehenge-like place from a legitimate source anyway.

Damn. I always thought it was Dartmoor. Checked it from a map and everything, because I'm that kind of kid.

Again: wait, no. Loch Daemon is on the Highlands, which is in the North-Western part of Scotland, and in totally different place from Darkmoor which is explicitly said to be in England. Separate places.

I fail to see how Claremont would do such thing by mistake, and moreover the total lack of "not far away from the stone circle where Brian Braddock became Captain Britain" caption anywhere strongly suggest Loch Daemon is not the stone circle or the close premises of it. "Loch" would also suggest a lake.

"In that, this tightly-constructed done-in-one reads very much like the premiere of a new season of an X-Men TV show, introducing the new setting and Big Bad while reminding the audience and new viewers who the main characters are."

Yep. This is in fact the inspiration for my TV Seasons theory. I had stopped reading my friend's copies of Uncanny for awhile (I believe it was at the end of the Mutant Massacre so I missed the year leading up to Fall of the Mutants basically) then saw this cover on the shelf and snatched it up and jumped backed in.

Much later I thought "gee, what a great season premiere this would make" and then worked back to the next most obvious, ie Secret Wars, then further to Kitty's first danger room session, etc.

It sets up a bold new era, tho some would argue Claremont doesn't really follow through, getting sidetracked by crossovers and destroying the group and losing the plot in the fight with Harras and Lee. But the set up is pretty great. Cyborgs!

Also, this issue and the next are combined to one episode, so they attack the Reavers then return the gifts. While the Season premiere of X-Factor combines them getting gifts and the ship attack into one episode which more or less corresponds with this one. Hindsight Lad!

I have to say a big part of me is kicking and yelling against the TV series idea. The point of comics is that it's a medium of its own kind and in its own right, combining still pictures with text... sometimes plenty of text. ;) TV is too big production, too profit oriented, too tied to the season structure, at worst with talent showcase songs by actors with singer aspirations shoehorned into the show - not that I haven't loved every musical episode if they only serve the plot rather than the "talent".

But other than that, if I was promised a fight against murderous cyborgs, they damn well are better not to be done with that before the second commercial break and have the rest be a crappy Christmas episode. On a season premiere!

If they really must they can return a little of the hoard but only when the ending credits are rolling already.

Mind you, the season finale for the Outback season would have an awesome cliffhanger ending.

Nimrod/Master Mold: "Nick Hunter" is working on a construction site and picks up a piece of Master Mold causing the fusion. Rogue/Carol and Betsy happen to be nearby by, ha, coincidence when the robot hulks up.

Did they ever show how exactly they collected together the cyborg all-star team? Pierce knows Reese, Cole and Macon who since the have hanged around with Lady D, but how do the original Reavers fit there?

I'm not sure Pierce had amped up anyone prior them together showing up in the Outback, and he talks about "making" rather than "bettering" the Reavers and presumably excluding himself from the term.

"Nimrod/Master Mold: "Nick Hunter" is working on a construction site and picks up a piece of Master Mold causing the fusion. Rogue/Carol and Betsy happen to be nearby by, ha, coincidence when the robot hulks up."

Pretty much...another case of them stumbling into something than actively seeking it out...I mean, of course Nimrod/Mastermold would merge on the same day a Carol-possessed-Rogue would be visiting the Vietnam Memorial. ;)

Don't forget Claremont got the idea for the Siege Perilous as a gateway from Andre Norton's Witch World novel (her Wizards World story from 1967 where he got the idea of mutants hunted by hounds and interred in labour camps - bet none of you knew that;)